


A Million Lights (One Fate)

by TheMostCunningJedi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 12:50:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMostCunningJedi/pseuds/TheMostCunningJedi
Summary: One-shot ficlet interpretation of how Padmé could be processing events after witnessing the dysfunction of the Republic firsthand during the Senate meeting where she called for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum. Inspired by The Phantom Menace's companion book, "Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala." Written in her POV.





	A Million Lights (One Fate)

A million lights, over a trillion souls; one universe.

Such is evident enough from my view here on the balcony of Senator Palpatine’s illustrious apartment in Coruscant’s Republica 500 neighborhood. Why isn’t it so in the Senate?

Back home on Naboo, Governor Bibble had a penchant for regularly quipping about how the rotunda is impenetrable to any outside noise. As a child, I figured he referred to it in the most literal sense, and that the walls of the Senate chamber were indeed erected with the best of soundproof construction. Only now I do know the true meaning of his sardonic remarks.

I admit to not following the trends of the Core Worlds too heavily, yet never did I once entertain the idea that empathy is but one of the many concepts thrown out the window and subsequently deemed so last season here.

Though there have been many times where I have been significantly aided and abetted by my ignorance, I struggle to pin my standoff in the Senate as one of such curiously blissful instances.

Entertaining an audience composed of the Supreme Chancellor and representatives from over a thousand Republic member worlds, my ceremonial attire could not have been a better costume to mask my disillusion, and even, embarrassment. 

My face was powdered to the whitest tone attainable, yet my inner mood painted a shade far from any cool, ghostly hue. Instead, the ardor I felt burning within better matched the two red dots inked onto my cheeks.

It was that very passion that also gave me a slight moment of pause, as I almost recoiled under the gaze of the Chancellor and the holocams when called up to speak by Senator Palpatine.

However, I was soon pulled right back into the moment by remembering the momentous implications of what I was about to do.

I was harkened back to my early days in the Legislative Youth Program, when the roads en route to the University of Theed were often obstructed by demonstrators objecting to any one of King Veruna’s various reforms.

My father would stress ease and patience as our speeder would attempt to navigate the traffic, even as I endlessly droned on about being late to class.

“Instructor Kerlin will understand, Padmé,” he would state as I anxiously twirled with my hair in the backseat. “There is no lesson in her curriculum that doesn’t ultimately come back to this; encouraging consciousness in citizens and ultimately amplifying their voices and concerns; especially those that often feel voiceless.” 

His words would ultimately fade as we eventually arrived at the school and I was overtaken by an amplified adrenaline, rushing through the University’s halls to my lecture room. They rung loud and clear in the rotunda, however.

Apparent as it was to most observers just how out of my element I was in the chamber, I refused that mere fact to instill shame in me. Other senators present sitting in their comfortable seats may be there serving just about any interest other than that of their respective peoples', but I intended to honor the very public that elected me and drove me to Coruscant in the first place, every step of the way. 

Just how removed are we now, from the common sense pillars of empathy, liberty, and justice that I came to fear being chastised for simply doing my job and standing up for the people of Naboo? All in the company of those who have turned their backs on their populaces and hear no voice outside of their influential colleagues in the Senate!

No. If that is indeed the way the tide flows nowadays, then perhaps the educational institutions of the Republic ought to provide free and mandatory field trips to Coruscant for the young constituency to witness their representatives “at work.” My instincts tell me neither party would find the junket particularly pleasant. 

This picture seems to appear only to me in clarity. I see it coherent and definite; taking up a shape not too different from that of the setpieces in the opera shows hosted here on Coruscant, of which I recall catching constant advertisements for on the HoloNet as a young girl. 

It's dependency. Symbiosis. The ties between us that make us, well us, are not foggy in my vision here in the midst of the city’s blinding lights and towering structures; in fact, the opposite has occurred, and these bonds have only become magnified in my sight.

The people need their representatives, and similarly, they need the people to stay in power. 

The Naboo need me. I too, need them. Not for my sake, for my political career is just as much up in the air as Valorum’s own after calling for a vote of no confidence in his leadership, but rather, to drive away the Federation’s oppressive forces from our planet. Yet, exactly what Naboo do I need? 

I may not have had an answer had two peculiar passengers not ended up boarding the Royal starship along the way on our excursion for aid, and I got to witness our shared experience as total outsiders in an environment completely foreign to us. I imagine that it is not everyday that ex-slaves and Gungans make their way into Coruscant and end up unwittingly entangled in this intricate web of political maneuvering. 

Naboo does not possess neither the million, neverending lights Coruscant's skyline is embedded with, nor a population exceeding a trillion beings. 

Nevertheless, it is one world. And despite differences in terrain and biology; one people. I with them, and them with me, no matter where I go or what I do. 

It is time to bring that message home.


End file.
